Oberlin College - Hi-O-Hi Yearbook (Oberlin, OH)

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57 During the same building period, a roomy brick dwelling house arose on the corner where Finney Chapel now stands and another, almost a duplicate, on the Conservatory corner. In the first Professor afterward President Finney lived and died. The other was the home of President Mahan during the fifteen years he remained in Oberlin, and afterward of Professor Morgan. Dr. and Mrs. James Dascomb arrived at the beginning of the first term of school, May, 1834. He came from Dartmouth College, and she from the Seminary at Ipswich, Mass., where she had received instruction from Mary Lyon and , other teachers who afterward founded Mt. l-lolyoke. Dr. and Mrs. Dascomb represented the best culture of Newvlingland. She was principal of the Ladies Department, as it was then called, for many years, and was admirably fitted to form the tastes and manners ol the generations of young women who came under her care. Dr. Dascomb was Professor of Botany, Physiology, and Chemistry, and beside that, being the only physician, he looked after the health of the colony. For his use what was long known as the Old Laboratory was erected, which stood almost on the site of Sturges Hall. This was the second brick building. It was ol one story with rising seats, a skylight over the lecturerfs table, and appliances for illustrating the study of Chemistry. Dr. Dascomb greatly rejoiced in these quarters and was for forty-four years a thorough and successful teacher of the three branches belonging to his department. Dr. Dascomb The following incident illustrates a phase of his character which came to be known to some mischievous boys of the village. A grape vine grew over a window of the Laboratory, which bore fine grapes. The boys annoyed the doctor by taking these grapes without permission. l-le stopped their depredations by putting the college skeleton just inside the window with eyeballs of phosphorous. The college was co-educational from the first, it being pait of Mr. Shipherd's plan to give to the misjudgecl and neglected ,ilgihltf sex such opportunities to improve their minds as were custom- arily accorded only to men. Very few women in the earlier years took the college course: the three who graduated ini l84l were the first in the country to receive the degree of A. B. The women at that time were generally satisfied with the Ladies' Course, a shorter curriculum conforming to that of the best female seminaries. . Mrs. Dascomb Manual labor was part of the early Oberlin plan. The late President Fairchild says: The first year four hours daily labor were required of every student. The manual labor bell rang at one o'clock in the afternoon and each young man repaired to the field or the forest, the shop or the mill for his work, for which he received from four to seven cents an hour according to his efficiency or skill. The young women performed the domestic labor in the boarding hall, for which they received three to I2 I

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presidency of his beloved institution, and so wrote to Rev. John Keep, chairman of the board of Trustees. Mr. Mahan entered heartily into the new enterprise and accompanied Mr. Shipherd to New York, where they prevailed upon Rev. Charles G. Finney to take the chair of Theology. Mr. Finney was already widely known as a preacher of great elo- quence and power. l-le made his consent conditional upon the opening of the school to colored persons and Mr. Shipherd, after considerable difficulty and delay, secured such action of the Trustees as should meet this demand. Arthur Tappan, a wealthy member of his church, agreed to advance the needed funds for a new building and to pay the salaries of the six professors at 5600.00 a year each. A Mr. Mahan came to Oberlin about Colonial Han the first of May, IS35, and forty of the Lane Seminary Rebels, as they were called, followed the latter part of the month. Hasty provision was made for their reception by building what was called Cincinnati Hall. -lt was constructed of fresh lumber, one story in height and battened on the outside with slabs, so that it came to be called Slab Hall. Mr. Finney and Professor John Morgan arrived in June. Professor Morgan had been an instructor in Lane Seminary. He was a graduate of Williams College, a man of broad culture, winning personality, and greatly beloved as a teacher. The year 1835 was a notable building year. Tappan Hall was erected in the middle of the lot since known as the Campus. It was the first brick building, was four stories in height, providing recitation rooms on the first floor and ninety rooms for students above. It was primarily designed for the home of the Theological Department, but had rooms for other students. Additional quarters were provided in Colonial Hall, built at the same time, a wooden structure, so called because the colonists joined the college in building WORD f it on condition that its chapel, on the first an floor seating eight hundred people, should 4' be used for the Sabbath services. acyl! , Before the building of' the First Church, the crowds attending commencement were ' X accommodated under the big tent, sent from New York by friends of Professor Finney. 1 X It was of circular form, one hundred feet H19 vip, X in diameter, and had a long blue streamer , ,i attached to the ridge pole on which ap- H ru' i t ' t H'ii peared in large white letters the motto: Qf'fg- i lifrivi Holiness to the Lordf' Three thousand The Tent people could be seated in this tent. II -'li' ' 'p it

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Q do four cents an hour. To equalize matters somewhat, the price of board was seventy-five cents a week for young women and a dollar for young men. When Professor Finney found the chapel of Colo- nial l-lall too small for the growing community, he took occasion to say at a Sabbath service-- Brethren, the Lord's work in this place demands of us a house of wor- ship that will accommodate the people, and whatever the Cabine' H311 Lord's work requires of us we can do. We must build a church. Now come together tomorrow at one o'clock, all of you, and we will talk this over, for it can be done. It was the greatest enterprise the colony had undertaken. ii'lii Professor Finney gave more than any one else. Other professors sub- iii? scribed 5200.00 each, from their meager salaries, and most of Q.. 9 Q 0 them doubled the amount later. It was decided that the building should be plain, but substantial and large, since it was the only it ' ' f f V church in the community. The colonists had little money, but they had willing hearts. Those who had teams hauled loads of brick, ' stone, and lumber over roads which were almost impassable at President Finney times. A year was spent in gathering materials and letting contracts. ln June l842 the corner stone was laid and the commencement of 1843 was held in the church, though it was not quite finished. The building embodied Professor Finney's ideas and he preached in its pulpit thirty years. There was no larger or better audience room west of the Alleghanies, when it was built. Professor Morgan was associated with Professor Finney in the pastorate of the church, usually preaching at the second service and supplying the pulpit in Mr. l7inney's absence. No persons had so large a share in shaping the Oberlin of .fi the past as these two men. Though always warm friends they were , very different in characteristics and attainments. Professor Finney it was not a college graduate, but a man of great originality. He was ,,l' f - . 1 the author of a new system of theology much discussed in the early days of Oberlin. He had had a legal training which made him ii 'fi l , invincible in argument. l-le attacked the sins and shames of the day A without mercy. 'V Professor Morgan was a graduate of Williams college, broad Professor Mwgan in his scholarship and of wide reading. It was said of him that he could give instruction in any branch of the college curriculum with- out an hour's notice, but his sedentary habits were not in accord with the college ideal of Learning and Labor. The fact weighed upon Professor Finney's mind and, as he was wont to bring all his burdens to the Lord in prayer, he offered this petition- O Lord, brother Morgan knows more than any of us, but he is so lazy. Volumes could be collected of President Finney's funny sayings. Many of those reported are no doubt apochryphal, but the following incident really occurred and illustrates - I3